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Journal’s New York Edition Faces a Delay

Technical snags threaten to delay Rupert Murdoch’s plan to create a metropolitan edition of The Wall Street Journal and go head-to-head locally with The New York Times, according to several people briefed on the matter. To keep to its schedule, the project needs outside help — help that could come from, of all places, The Times.

The new version of The Journal, with an added section of New York reporting, is supposed to start in April with a staff of about three dozen and a focus on local politics and cultural news.

At the same time, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation is upgrading The New York Post’s printing plant in the South Bronx so that it can print The Journal and The Post. The Journal plans to close its plant in South Brunswick, N.J.

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The Wall Street Journal's New York edition, to begin in April, will focus on local events.Credit
Kitra Cahana/The New York Times

But refitting The Post’s presses has run into repeated delays, according to people at the News Corporation and other publishing companies, who were given anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. To accelerate the work, News Corporation wants to outsource some of The Post’s printing, as many as 125,000 copies a day, for at least two months.

An obvious candidate is New York City’s other major tabloid, The Daily News, whose printing plant in Jersey City has ample capacity and some of the newest, most advanced presses in the country. But after being approached through an intermediary, The Daily News rejected the idea of helping its rival.

News Corporation is looking into several other options, including The Times’s plant in the College Point section of Queens, according to several people in the industry. They said The Times was considering making the deal, despite Mr. Murdoch’s stated intent to compete with The Times and weaken it.

Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of The Times, said, “We are in discussions with News Corp. to allow them to make use of our presses,” but declined to elaborate. “This is an advantageous business transaction and nothing more,” he said.

The News Corporation declined to comment.

Industry executives said that at typical printing rates, the work would yield The Times no more than $200,000. But people briefed on the discussions said the price was likely to be significantly higher.

A version of this article appears in print on January 28, 2010, on page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: The Journal Faces a Delay In New York Edition’s Debut. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe